(01-16-2017 07:51 AM)The Cutter of Bish Wrote:  

(01-16-2017 06:04 AM)_C2_ Wrote:  They consistently choke...

Yeah, they do. I think their conference plays a role in that in the form of atrophy as the season advances.

Stop it, Butler played in a conference that at best was only slightly better. The second year they went to the title game, they only had an above average regular season and looked to be a non-Tournament team in February before advancing to the title game. And now the WCC is better than the Horizon of that day, so I don't wanna hear it, they just choke on the regular. It's not like they go from January to March without playing a real team, they often have 5-7 such games.

Quote:Gonzaga plays a front-heavy schedule, and then goes into the abyss of their mostly horrible conference (spare SMC and BYU) where they don't see other solid tournament teams for basically two months (SMC is the exception this year, but most ones see SMC and BYU on the bubble and its fringes). Their conference is one of the first to declare its AQ, so they sit again for a few days, and then they go into that crazy opening weekend. It's not a good tempo or place for Gonzaga. There's just too much drop-off from competitive exposure. It doesn't serve them well.

I don't know what to do with them in a bracket anymore. I want to pencil them in to go far every year, but I know now from enough prior bad acts that I shouldn't. Even for the Sweet 16, which, they should be able to reach almost every year if they aren't in that 7-10 seed cluster. They do me in the same way Michigan State and Duke tend to do...they should be good for a long journey, given the name on the jersey, but they muck it up enough, too.

Like I said, it's just an excuse. What the issue really is, is that they snuck up on people when they first emerged on the scene. They had some legit heart and soul players such as Matt Santangelo and Casey Calvary but no one respected them during the early runs, at least opposing teams. Once they started getting a rep, they stopped advancing deep as people respected their name and came at them with everything plus they started choking all the time, especially in the Adam Morrison years.